Quarterly Classes
2010

Sundays

ADVANCED SCENE STUDY of The Interview by Jean Claude Van Itallie—Mark Peckham

Sundays & Wednesdays, July 18-August 11. 6:30-9:30 PM.   8 sessions in 4 weeks.  $210

Refine your timing, physicality, and characterization skills through this seminal work of the1960’s avant-garde.  This highly stylized satire 20th century America begins as a simple series of job interviews then fractures into cocktail parties, square dances, political campaigns, and more, eventually coming full circle to complete the interviews.  

Mark Peckham recently directed To Kill A Mockingbird at 2nd Story Theatre.  His recent acting work includes Alfred Doolittle in My Fair Lady at the Virginia Stage Company, Buried Child at Boston’s Nora Theatre Company and the Ghost of Christmas Present in Trinity Rep’s A Christmas Carol.  Last year hedirected Orpheus Descending at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren, RI.  Other directing credits include On the Verge, Full Hook-up, Talking With… Anything Goes and The Unnamed. He has worked extensively as an acting teacher and theatre instructor with Providence College, RISD, 2nd Story Theatre, and All Children’s’ Theatre.  Mr. Peckham was co-founder and co-artistic director of Wickenden Gate Theatre in Providence. 

 

 

Mondays

INTRODUCTION TO ACTING—Mark Peckham

Mondays, Jul 12-August 30.  6:30-9:30 PM.   8 Weeks.  $210

This is a fundamental course for anyone interested in acting on stage or screen.  It focuses on basic skills using exercises, improvisation, monologue work, and scene study.  Some work outside class is required, but no prior experience is necessary. You’ll finish the class prepared for more in-depth training and your first auditions—and you’ll have a great time along the way. 

Mark Peckham’s most recent acting work includes Alfred Doolittle in My Fair Lady at the Virginia Stage Company, Buried Child at Boston’s Nora Theatre Company and the Ghost of Christmas Present in Trinity Rep’s A Christmas Carol.  Last year hedirected Orpheus Descending at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren, RI.  Other directing credits include On the Verge, Full Hook-up, Talking With…, Anything Goes and The Unnamed. He has worked extensively as an acting teacher and theatre instructor with Providence College, RISD, 2nd Story Theatre, and All Children’s’ Theatre.  Mr. Peckham was co-founder and co-artistic director of Wickenden Gate Theatre in Providence. 


 

 

 

PLAYWRIGHTS CHALLENGE —David Eliet

Mondays, July 12-August 16. 7:00-10:00 PM.  6 weeks  $160

The gauntlet is thrown.  Do you have what it takes to write four ten minute one acts in four weeks?  Each week, in class, you’ll be given a setting, the number, age and genders of your characters, plus a prop or ten that must be organically included in the play.  Then you have one week to write it.  The first class, Monologue Mania, will get you started, and actors will present a reading of your favorite piece on the last day.  Ready, set, write! 

Playwright and director David Eliet founded of The Perishable Theatre in 1983 and served as the director of The Cleveland Play House Lab Company and the Circle In The Square Acting Ensemble.  He was a founder of The Trinity Rep Conservatory (now the Brown/Trinity Consortium) and the All Children’s Theatre Ensemble.  He has been an Edward F. Albee Playwriting Fellow, a Rhode Island State Council on The Arts Playwriting Fellow, a Fulbright Scholar and a recipient of an Alden B. Dow Creativity Fellowship.  His two most recent plays, produced at Perishable Theatre, were supported by grants from the RI State Council on the Arts.  His plays have been published and produced in this country and abroad in both English and in translation. 

FROM BUMPS TO BOAS: BUILDING BURLESQUE—Lady Miss Iris

Mondays, July 12-August 30. 7:00-10:00 PM.  7 weeks  $185

Week off TBD

You’ve seen this old-fashioned theatrical form of striptease on the stage or screen and you’re secretly dying to try it yourself, aren’t you?  Don’t be shy!  You don’t have to do it alone.  Lady Miss Iris will train you in all the arts of burlesque goddesses of yore, from dance steps to costume crafts.  She’ll coach and support you as you develop your stage persona and very first routine.  This course is perfect for women of any shape, age, size, or shade who have some dance or acting experience or who have taken It’s Burlesque and want to deepen their knowledge of the craft.  Students are expected to provide their own materials and spend 2-3 hours per week working outside class.  Women only. 

Lady Miss Iris puts the femme back in feminism with her glamorous transformations.  As Providence’s first neo-burlesque artist, the Lady has performed in rock clubs, theaters, galleries and ballrooms from AS220 to Worcester.  Though currently retired from the variety circuit, the Lady and her mild-mannered alter ego, Amy have been featured in The Providence Journal, RI Monthly, Fox News Boston, and the Boston Herald. Amy was a 2006-09 Resident Artist at Perishable Theatre, where her original full length performance work, The Thing That Ate My Brain…Almost, was produced in May 2009.  The Thing, an 80-minute, hilarious fantasty burlesque of personal trauma and science fiction, was subsequently selected for presentation at the 2010 VSA Arts International Festival in Washington, DC.  


TUESDAYS

IMPROVISATION—Joanne Fayan

Tuesdays, July 13-August 10. 6:30-9:30 PM.  5 weeks  $135

Let's jump into the deep end of the pool and improvise.  No ropes to hang onto in this class. Learn to create a scene or a monologue - on the spot – with no prior thought, no memorized lines. Just you and your improv partners.  Gain confidence while building fundamental acting skills through a variety of short-form games and exercises.  Develop skills in listening/reacting and creating an ensemble while delving into your imagination to see what you find.  There's nothing to fear – only exhilarating fun!  Even if you've taken this class before, you'll continue to hone your skills. No experience necessary.    

Joanne Fayan is the drama teacher at St. Andrew’s School (Barrington) and a local actor. Previously, she was the Communications Director with 2nd Story Theatre and the Associate Artistic Director at All Children’s Theatre. Recently, she performed in the Kevin Broccoli Monologue Show and with Manton Avenue Project. She was last seen at Perishable Theatre in the Women’s Playwriting Festival (2000). A few roles she took on at 2nd Story include Annie Sullivan (The Miracle Worker), Mame (Auntie Mame), and Mary Dale (Red Scare on Sunset). She is the co-founder of We’re Not Your Mother Players improv troupe in South Carolina.

 

 

WEDNESDAYS

DANCE SMORGASBORD—Nikki Carrara

Wednesdays, July 14-August 18. 6:30-7:30 PM.  6 Weeks.  $60

Gotta dance?  Never had a lesson?  Don’t know where to start or what form to study first?  Nikki Carrara helps you resolve your dilemma with progressive arrangement of alignment, strengthening, and stretching exercises from Ballet, Jazz, and Modern dance. Every class explores basic movements and how to integrate them into dance technique. This fun course includes snippets of dance history that provide some background to the development of various styles and techniques.  Each week culminates with a combination, for which the student will be well prepared for during class. Music ranges from classical ballet favorites to Tom Waits, the B-52's, and beyond! 

Nikki Carrara is a dance artist and educator.  Her work stems from the belief that Movement is a common language that allows diverse audiences and performers to experience the lives of each other, expanding our common consciousness.  Thus, dance is an essential voice to contemporary activism, breaking down barriers that exist between stratified populations, and providing a lens through which we consider our choices.  Her choreography has been presented in theatres, studios, colleges, art galleries, and fields throughout the region.  Ms Carrara shares her love and knowledge of dance with students of all ages, in private and public settings. Since 2007 she has worked with other dance professionals and the RI Department of Education to formulate and distribute K-12 Grade Span Expectations for the study of Dance as an academic subject in RI public schools.  She currently teaches technique classes in Modern, Ballet, and Tap, as well as Composition.